


Come Back Down

by Kyra_Bane



Series: 30 Day OTP Challenge [3]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Aftermath, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26129317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyra_Bane/pseuds/Kyra_Bane
Summary: Some injuries are invisible. After Merrick, before Booker's exile, Joe and Nicky try to unravel it all in their minds.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: 30 Day OTP Challenge [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1894534
Comments: 15
Kudos: 204





	Come Back Down

**Author's Note:**

> Finally read The Old Guard: Opening Fire, so there's a tiny mention of Booker's back story from there (tho tbh it could have been mentioned in the film; I don't remember all the details) but nothing maaaajor, I think. A little angsty interlude for Joe and Nicky, but I suppose that's par for the course, sometimes.
> 
> (I'd say the next one will be happier but I've just looked at the prompt and UH so enjoy this I guess.)

Andy drives too fast. For once, Nicky can't blame her – there's a part of him that marvels at the way she speeds through the London streets; this is not a city made for driving.

Her knuckles are white on the wheel and he wonders why. Not _why_ but, what particular thing is causing it? The pain? Neither he nor Joe have had an injury that has pained them for more than a few minutes in years. For her – almost six thousand of them. It must be alien to her, to have to feel the thud of it like this.

Is it...? Nicky's gaze turns to Joe. He's not looking back and there's tension lining every muscle in his body. He's sure Andy can see it out of the corner of her eye, but Nile won't, if she looks. It will take her some time to learn to read Joe like that – time that, of course, she now has.

A small, petulant part of him wants Joe to look at him. Joe knows he's there; the only saving grace of this whole endeavour is that they were together the entire time, but Nicky knows, too, that if Joe looks back and catches sight of Booker, he won't be able to stop himself lashing out. He'd done it in the lab, and Nicky feels it too, that stab piercing straight through his heart, but he's the one they can trust to be shoulder-to-shoulder with Booker in the back of this car and not feel the need to rip his throat out.

Well, he might feel the need to. It doesn't mean he's going to act on it.

He doesn't realise his hands have curled into fists until Nile leans into him, ever so gently. Booker is leaning as far away as he can, all but pressed up against the window, but Nicky ignores him, looks to her. The corner of her mouth twitches and he nods, lets out a breath.

They have a safe house in the city, of course, and for once Andy doesn't dump the car a few streets away. London is a maze of cameras, a nightmare for them, and all of them are covered in blood, broken, tired. Andy's on the phone as she gets out – "Copley," Nicky hears – and then she's striding off ahead of them, one little flinch as something pulls at the wound in her side.

Nicky wants to cry. Joe looks back and his eyes rest on Booker for a moment, Booker who seems to shrink in on himself under that gaze, before they move straight to Nicky. The anger falls from his face and he extends his arm; Nicky tucks himself under it, leans into him, inhales his warmth and scent and shakes, for a second, as some of the nightmare of the past few days starts to creep up on him.

"Not much further, habibi," Joe says into his hair and Nicky looks up in time to catch him giving Nile a significant look.

They make it in the building, the two of them pressed together down one side, Joe's arm heavy and possessive over Nicky's shoulders. Nile and Booker are some way behind. The elevator ride up to the small apartment they keep here is almost unbearable but Nicky doesn't have the heart to tell Nile to take the stairs. She and Booker exit first and Nicky leans his head back against the wall, swallows around a lump in his throat.

"Come," Joe murmurs, prising him away and out and, once they're inside, they don't stop, moving through the sitting area, the kitchen, into the very back bedroom. It has an en suite and a bed that has been theirs since the moment Andy showed them the place. Joe manoeuvres Nicky onto it, and when he's sitting, Nicky looks up to see Joe standing before him.

They don't say anything for a long moment. There's too much to say, so much that Nicky isn't sure where to begin. He wonders, wildly, whether they should have left the other three alone out there, but then he thinks that they saved them – even if Booker was the one who condemned them in the first place.

Sorrow claws its way up his throat; that Booker felt so betrayed by them for living their lives he betrayed them in turn, that Andy will die, even in a fierce battle, he knows, but she'll be gone. Hot tears prick the back of his eyes and then Joe drops to his knees before him, crawls between his legs and pushes his face against Nicky's chest.

His arms are strong, firm, holding Nicky tight, and Nicky reaches out blindly, one hand in Joe's hair, the other on his shoulder. They don't have time for this, not now. He knows if he starts crying, he won't stop, and they have to deal with Booker, they have to shower and change and process the bare minimum to make sure this won't happen to them again.

Joe is murmuring against his t-shirt – his _filthy_ t-shirt, Nicky realises with a start – and though Nicky can't make out the words, the sound of Joe's voice is enough to soothe him. He gulps in one breath, two. Thinks of the way Nile came into that room. He would not have blamed _her_ for leaving them, so young, so new. And yet, she came back.

"I wanted to tear him apart with my bare hands," Joe says, lifting his head, and Nicky sees that his eyes are rimmed red, too.

His voice is pained. The worst part is, Joe liked Booker the most, probably, out of all of them. Joe has always empathised with Booker's pain, his family turning against him, losing them, more than the others. Nicky does his best never to think on his family. Andy doesn't remember hers, not well, anyway. But Joe – Joe loved his, carries them in his heart, still.

"I know," Nicky says because he'd heard it in Joe's voice before Andy had told him it wasn't the right time. He strokes his fingers through Joe's curls. Joe presses up into the touch and his hands are moving, fluttering above Nicky's skin.

"I'm fine, hayati," Nicky says, though he knows the words won't be enough. Later, after they've done with Booker, after they're both sure that Andy and Nile are as safe as they can be, they'll take their time with each other. Nicky would do it now – every moment Joe had been strapped next to him, had been swallowing his cries of pain, had been more torturous than anything the doctor had done to him. But they don't have time and he won't leave Andy waiting. Not today.

"Andy," Joe says, like he can hear what Nicky's thinking. Maybe he can. "I'm scared for her. Booker, he– She nearly died today, because of him!" He slips into Arabic without noticing, ranting to himself and Nicky's hand slides from his hair, down his face, fingers curling into Joe's beard and along his jaw. When he rubs his thumb there, Joe stops abruptly.

"I am here," Nicky says. "And Andy and Nile. And yes, even Booker."

Joe opens his mouth but Nicky shakes his head.

"I know. I _know._ But we have to–"

There's a knock at the door. Tentative. Nicky knows it's Nile; and Joe does too, from the way his expression softens.

"Come in," Nicky says and Joe doesn't move from the floor, doesn't look back.

If Nile is surprised to find them in that position, it doesn't show on her face. Then again, after the past few days, he wonders if she's all out of surprise.

"Andy says to get ready," she says. "We're going for a drink and to–" She pauses. She's changed, bathed, and Nicky doesn't know how long they've been in this room.

"To deal with Booker," Nile says, finally. "If you two, that is, I can tell her..."

"We will come," Nicky replies. "Half an hour."

The look Joe gives him is plaintive but Nicky shakes his head. "Tell her we're coming," he says to Nile.

She nods, smiles faintly, and closes the door behind her. Joe rests his head on Nicky's thigh. "She is a wonder," he says and the fight might have gone out of him for the moment, but Nicky can see it still simmering in his eyes.

He hums his agreement softly and then moves his hands, tugs Joe to his feet. When he stands, he only has to look up a little to meet Joe's gaze.

"Shower, my love," he says but Joe is still staring at him, eyes raking over his face, down his neck, his shoulders. Nicky swallows. Joe's looking at him like he's seeing him for the first time, like he never expected to see him again.

"I thought you were never coming back," Joe says then, whispers it, almost too quiet for Nicky to hear. They're only a breath away from one another. Joe shakes and Nicky leans forward, brushes his lips along Joe's cheekbone, against the shell of his ear.

"You still have many more years with me yet," Nicky says and his voice is steady because he is sure of nothing except this.

Joe sags against him and Nicky drags him into the bathroom, arranges them both in the shower. Water pounds down around them and when it's Nicky's turn to lose himself again, Joe catches him and, ever so gently, puts him back together.

**Author's Note:**

> 30 Day OTP Challenge - Day Three: Patching each other up.
> 
> Obviously had to be more emotional than physical with these boys 💔


End file.
